Author: Amy Medina Page 7 of 229

Longing for a Better Country

On October 3, 2023

In How Americans Think, Living Like a Missionary, Thoughts on Missions

Living as a foreigner taught me how to live as a Christian

Imagine you read this in a newsletter from a cross-cultural missionary: 

We didn’t expect Hindu beliefs to be so strange. We were expecting the people to think more like us, and their differences are making us very uncomfortable, even angry.

We are especially worried about how Hindu beliefs are influencing us and our children. We don’t want to expose ourselves to these lies. We only let a few safe people, usually other missionaries, into our home. We want our children to have only good Christian influences in their lives.

Would you question whether these missionaries understood what they signed up for? Would you wonder if they are having any impact at all? This is not a true story, but there’s something to notice here: all Christians have been given the same Great Commission, yet sometimes we hold missionaries to a different standard than we hold ourselves. Can the missionary life illustrate God’s intention for all believers?

When a foreign country felt like home

I was a missionary kid in Africa for half of my childhood, and then my husband and I lived in Tanzania, East Africa, for 16 years. We adapted to driving on the left side of the road. We figured out how to combat millipedes and centipedes. We learned to snorkel; we knew where to buy the best roadside barbequed chicken; we hailed three-wheeled rickshaw taxis in Swahili. We formed tight bonds in the community. Life in Tanzania was not always easy, but we felt we belonged there. Visiting the States felt stressful; Tanzania felt like home. 

Yet, no matter how much I wanted Tanzania to be my home, it never really could be. Tangible reminders of my status as a foreigner followed me everywhere. Every two years, I had to reapply for a residence permit. I was not permitted to own a home. I could not vote. No matter how hard I tried, I would never look the same, sound the same, think the same as the people around me. I was always an outsider.

Scripture often refers to Christians as strangers (Heb 11:13), foreigners (1 Pet 1:17) and exiles (1 Pet 2:11). Making my home in a foreign land gave me this perspective. It granted me a picture of what my life as a Christian should look like in my own home country. 

Now that I’m living back in America, I discovered that living as a foreigner taught me much about living as a Christian. 

Go here to read the rest at the EFCA blog.

Worth Your Time (September 2023)

By Amy Medina

On October 2, 2023

In Book Recommendations, Worth Your Time

Articles:

Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest by Jon Haidt

This article isn’t about politics; it’s about the power of ideas.

“Many young people had suddenly—around 2013—embraced three great untruths:

They came to believe that they were fragile and would be harmed by books, speakers, and words, which they learned were forms of violence (Great Untruth #1).

They came to believe that their emotions—especially their anxieties—were reliable guides to reality (Great Untruth #2).

They came to see society as comprised of victims and oppressors—good people and bad people (Great Untruth #3).”

Do Christians Really Suffer in America? by John Piper

“So, we don’t just wait for others to persecute us and take away our pleasures and privileges and securities. Instead, we voluntarily make choices that deny ourselves some of these things freely, willingly, joyfully in order to serve others.”

Our Missions Approach is Too Western by Elliot Clark

“There’s a double mistake here. First, missionaries of a bygone era weren’t as complicit in colonialism as many think. Second, for all our anthropological acumen, we may not be as culturally savvy as we suppose. I’m convinced current missiological strategies can still be deeply Western in potentially harmful ways.”

Books:

Walking with Grace: Embracing God’s Goodness in Trauma Grace Utomo’s story is extraordinary. She was a newly married 23-year-old and a rising violin star when she was hit by a car in a crosswalk. The ensuing trauma to her body and mind equals a depth that few of us will ever experience, yet through it all she continues to keep her focus and hope fixed on Christ. Her story is sobering and inspiring.

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman

If you are bewildered or just curious about where our current cultural perspectives came from, this is an excellent place to start. Think of it this way: If you were going to live in India, you would want to research Hinduism so that you could understand the way people think. If you live in America or Europe, this book is that equivalent.

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery in America by Clint Smith

The longer I live, the more I am astonished at what was left out of my 80’s/90’s American education regarding slavery. If we want to find any hope for lasting racial reconciliation in our country, it’s got to start with reckoning with our history.

We rejoice that our Grace (age 17 ) chose to be baptized in September!

I Want to Need You

By Amy Medina

On September 21, 2023

In How Americans Think

I bonded with Mark and Jan when I called them ten days after arriving in Tanzania because I had a panic attack. I became friends with Prakash and Harsha when they invited Gil and me to sleep at their house that night.

Carol showed me how to grocery shop in a new country. I got to know Alyssa during her long hours combing lice out of my hair. Everest became an extension of our family during the years he fixed our plumbing, electricity, and immigration problems. We called Dan and Janet when Gil broke out in a sudden, high fever. Janelle and I became friends while being stranded by the old school car multiple times. Lucy and I shared our life stories while she patiently stretched my Swahili skills.

When thrust into a country where I had no extended family, didn’t speak the language, and had to learn new ways of surviving, I had to throw myself at the mercy of others. Yes, it was humiliating to be so dependent, but I didn’t have a choice. And when I got my feet under me and other new people arrived, they turned to me for a lifeline – and it was fulfilling and gratifying to help. Bonds formed quickly, deeply, permanently.

These weren’t just friendships based on casual, common interests. They were relationships built on necessity and desperation, forming an intricate web of the sorrows and joys of daily life.

When we relocated to a brand new city in California three years ago, I found myself frustrated that it took so long to make friends and feel like I was part of a community. In Tanzania, it had happened almost instantaneously. What was different? It slowly dawned on me: In America, I didn’t need to depend on anyone.

Worth Your Time (August 2023)

By Amy Medina

On August 29, 2023

In Book Recommendations, Worth Your Time

Social Media and Youth Mental Health Even the Surgeon General is sounding the alarm about social media for kids and teens. Our kids aren’t happy about how we regulate them on this, but we aren’t budging. Too much is at stake.

Social Media is Causing Our Children to Suffer “The nature of community is greatly affected by social media. While these platforms offer a way to connect with others, they promote shallow, fleeting interactions over meaningful, deep relationships. This can impair the development of critical social skills such as empathy and conflict resolution.”

Which connects to my next topic….

What Social Science Tells Us About How to Escape Poverty This is totally fascinating. Hint: It has everything to do with community and nothing to do with donating food, clothes, or even money.

Good Genes are Nice, But Joy is Better (You’ll sense a pattern in these articles!) “Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.”

If you’re a parent of teens, you’ll appreciate these thoughts by Gretchen Ronnevik. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I have nearly 4 teens now, and I’ve learned a lot the hard way, and see other parents around me with less kids who are just getting to that stage make the same mistakes I made, so I want to share what I’ve learned.”

Books (Amazon links….but remember to buy used!)

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. A beautifully written short novel about the power of redemption.

When We Called Myanmar Home by Julie Jean Francis. Third Culture Kids and their parents will relate to this bittersweet book about loving a country that’s not your own.

Fostered: One Woman’s Powerful Story of Finding Faith and Family Through Foster Care by Tori Hope Petersen. Though there were some parts of Tori’s story that I think she’ll see differently when she’s older, I really enjoyed this memoir of growing up in foster care. These kinds of stories always give me insights into my own kids.

This reunion with kids they’ve known their whole lives was truly special.

Gil and his brother took the boys on a camping trip.

The Mystery of Salvation: My Story of Doubt and Faith

By Amy Medina

On August 21, 2023

In Book Recommendations, Liberia, My Memoirs

I remember the indignation I felt over the miniature potted plant.

I was eight years old, and it was Sunday School at the big Baptist church on the hill. The fluorescent lights flickered as we squirmed in our metal folding chairs while the teacher asked us to raise our hands if we wanted to invite Jesus into our hearts. She reminded us that every head was bowed and every eye was closed because, apparently, this was a secret decision. We peeked behind fingers laced in front of our eyes.

A brown-haired girl was summoned behind the room divider and reappeared a few minutes later, surrounded by the approving gaze of the teachers. She seemed rather flippant for one who had just done something that required the rest of us to sit so solemnly with every-head-bowed-and-every-eye-closed.

I knew what had happened behind the room divider; the drill was familiar, even with only eight years under my belt. The teacher would have recited a prayer; the girl would have repeated it, and presto: Jesus was now in her heart.

When the brown-haired girl emerged, she was holding a fake miniature potted plant: a prize, presumably, for raising her hand. Jealously flamed. I loved anything miniature, and I briefly contemplated raising my hand too. Yet I was caught in a conundrum: I had learned that you could only ask Jesus into your heart once, and I had already done so with my mother when I was five years old, right next to the record player that sat under the dining room window. There was nothing I could do to get myself that prize. I wondered, should this decision even warrant a prize? The unfairness planted itself as a memory.

By 12, my faith had grown with my shoe size. In Liberia, I was incubated in an extraordinary community of multicultural Christians. Why wouldn’t I want to align myself with their God? Every night, I sat on my bed and read five chapters of the Bible, framed by the old-fashioned brown-flowered wallpaper in my bedroom. I went straight through until I got bogged down in Isaiah and skipped to the New Testament. I wrote little notes with goals for myself on how to improve in one fruit of the Spirit each month. I cried when I prayed for my unsaved family members.

I told my Dad I was ready to be baptized. In Liberia, the school gymnasium was also the church, representing the worst of times (P.E.) and the best of times (Psalty musicals). One Sunday, I stood outside that gymnasium while the cover was pulled off of the small concrete baptismal, and I stood in line in the red dust with several others. “Why do you want to be baptized?” the pastor asked me. “So that I can show the world I’m a Christian,” was my confident reply.

But yet, I had doubts. When did I actually become a Christian? I had no dramatic conversion story; I couldn’t remember not believing. So was my faith legitimate? What else did I need to do? Fear of being Left Behind permeated my generation. How could I be sure I was in?